xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision c17d43407fe04133a94055b0dbc7ea8965654a9f)
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32.\"     @(#)newfs.8	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/3/95
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd May 29, 2001
36.Dt NEWFS 8
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm newfs ,
40.Nd construct a new file system
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl NOU
44.Op Fl S Ar sector-size
45.Op Fl T Ar disktype
46.Op Fl a Ar maxcontig
47.Op Fl b Ar block-size
48.Op Fl c Ar cylinders
49.Op Fl e Ar maxbpg
50.Op Fl f Ar frag-size
51.Op Fl g Ar avgfilesize
52.Op Fl h Ar avfpdir
53.Op Fl i Ar bytes
54.Op Fl m Ar free space
55.Op Fl o Ar optimization
56.Op Fl s Ar size
57.Op Fl u Ar sectors
58.Op Fl v
59.Ar special
60.Sh DESCRIPTION
61.Nm Newfs
62is used to initialize and clear filesystems before first use.
63Before running
64.Nm
65the disk must be labeled using
66.Xr disklabel 8 .
67.Nm Newfs
68builds a file system on the specified special file.
69(We often refer to the
70.Dq special file
71as the
72.Dq disk ,
73although the special file need not be a physical disk.
74In fact, it need not even be special.)
75Typically the defaults are reasonable, however
76.Nm
77has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively overridden.
78.Pp
79The following options define the general layout policies:
80.Bl -tag -width indent
81.It Fl T Ar disktype
82For backward compatibility.
83.It Fl N
84Cause the file system parameters to be printed out
85without really creating the file system.
86.It Fl U
87Enables soft updates on the new filesystem.
88.It Fl a Ar maxcontig
89Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be
90laid out before forcing a rotational delay.
91The default value is 1.
92See
93.Xr tunefs 8
94for more details on how to set this option.
95.It Fl b Ar block-size
96The block size of the file system, in bytes.  It must be a power of 2.  The
97default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
98The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.
99Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended,
100and may produce unpredictable results.
101.It Fl c Ar #cylinders/group
102The number of cylinders per cylinder group in a file system.  The default
103is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.  This value is
104dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size
105and the number of bytes per inode.
106.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
107Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
108allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
109allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
110The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
111See
112.Xr tunefs 8
113for more details on how to set this option.
114.It Fl f Ar frag-size
115The fragment size of the file system in bytes.  It must be a power of two
116ranging in value between
117.Ar blocksize Ns /8
118and
119.Ar blocksize .
120The default is 2048 bytes.
121.It Fl g Ar avgfilesize
122The expected average file size for the file system.
123.It Fl h Ar avgfpdir
124The expected average number of files per directory on the file system.
125.It Fl i Ar number of bytes per inode
126Specify the density of inodes in the file system.
127The default is to create an inode for every
128.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
129bytes of data space.
130If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
131to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
132One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
133specifies the average file size on the file system.
134.It Fl m Ar free space \&%
135The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
136space threshold.
137The default value used is
138defined by
139.Dv MINFREE
140from
141.Aq Pa ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
142currently 8%.
143See
144.Xr tunefs 8
145for more details on how to set this option.
146.It Fl o Ar optimization\ preference
147.Pq Ar space No or Ar time .
148The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
149allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
150If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
151the default is to optimize for
152.Ar space ;
153if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
154the default is to optimize for
155.Ar time .
156See
157.Xr tunefs 8
158for more details on how to set this option.
159.It Fl s Ar size
160The size of the file system in sectors.  This value defaults to the size of the
161raw partition specified in
162.Ar special
163(in other words,
164.Nm
165will use the entire partition for the file system).
166.It Fl v
167Specify that the disk does not contain any partitions, and that
168.Nm
169should build a file system on the whole disk.
170This option is useful for synthetic disks such as
171.Nm vinum .
172.El
173.Pp
174The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
175Their default values are taken from the disk label.
176Changing these defaults is useful only when using
177.Nm
178to build a file system whose raw image will eventually be used on a
179different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
180(for example on a write-once disk).
181Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
182it impossible for
183.Xr fsck 8
184to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
185.Bl -tag -width indent
186.It Fl S Ar sector-size
187The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
188.It Fl u Ar sectors/cylinders
189The number of sectors per cylinder available for data allocation by the file
190system.
191The default is 4096.
192If zero is specified, the value from the disklabel will be used.
193.El
194.Sh EXAMPLES
195.Dl newfs /dev/ad3s1a
196.Pp
197Creates a new ufs file system on
198.Pa ad3s1a .
199.Nm
200will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes
201and the largest possible number of cylinders per group.
202These values tend to produce better performance for most applications
203than the historical defaults
204(8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).
205This large fragment size
206may lead to large amounts of wasted space
207on filesystems that contain a large number of small files.
208.Sh SEE ALSO
209.Xr fdformat 1 ,
210.Xr disktab 5 ,
211.Xr fs 5 ,
212.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
213.Xr disklabel 8 ,
214.Xr diskpart 8 ,
215.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
216.Xr fsck 8 ,
217.Xr mount 8 ,
218.Xr tunefs 8 ,
219.Xr vinum 8
220.Rs
221.%A M. McKusick
222.%A W. Joy
223.%A S. Leffler
224.%A R. Fabry
225.%T A Fast File System for UNIX
226.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
227.%V 3
228.%P pp 181-197
229.%D August 1984
230.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
231.Re
232.Sh HISTORY
233The
234.Nm
235command appeared in
236.Bx 4.2 .
237